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Afghanistan

Establishing peace and stability in Afghanistan remains an immediate challenge for the international community. The NYU Center on International Cooperation (CIC) utilizes subject-matter expertise and extensive networks to support efforts to achieve greater stability in Afghanistan and the region. Through a blend of structured dialogues, applied research, and strategic outreach, ARP works…” to “Through a blend of structured dialogues, applied research, and strategic outreach, CIC’s Afghanistan Regional Project (ARP) works on many of the most pressing problems facing Afghanistan and the surrounding region - from reconciliation to security to regional cooperation.

CIC’s applied research also targets creating a better understanding of key actors and issues in Afghanistan and the surrounding region. In 2011 the Separating the Taliban from al-Qaeda report challenged several prevailing assumptions about the relationship between the groups. The findings contributed to the development of separate international sanctions lists, which was a key step in the development of preliminary talks with the Taliban about a potential political settlement.

Related Publications

Over the past decade the United States and the international community have funded an unprecedented private security industry in Afghanistan. As a result, this industry has become entangled with the Afghan political economy, as international spending has been implicated in funding informal armed groups and commanders. Considerable uncertainty remains as Afghanistan approaches the 2014 deadline for assuming national security responsibilities.

Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn are researchers and writers based in Kandahar. They have worked in Afghanistan since 2006, focusing on the Taliban insurgency and the history of southern Afghanistan over the past four decades. This paper published by CIC, expands on the following key findings:

This report by Jonathan Caulkins, Mark Kleiman, and Jonathan Kulick contributes to the ongoing debate about counter-narcotics policies in Afghanistan, and in relation to counter-insurgency operations by adding a heretofore missing element–applied economic analysis of the effect of counter-narcotics policies. It does so by applying to a stylized depiction of the Afghan situation a standard model that economists and policy analysts have applied to a large range of policy areas.

On Monday November 23rd, CIC and the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) hosted a panel to discuss a new CIC report on China’s One-Belt-One-Road initiative (OBOR), its impact on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and how it relates to United States efforts in the broader region.